Road Trips to Theater

[Melissa25]

Posted: 6/2/25 at 5:26pm

Now that the Broadway theater season is over I get to focus on visiting many of my favorite regional theaters.  I am starting a specific thread where we can share our theater road trip experiences.  I have done this in the past and have enjoyed learning about new regional theaters from others. I am always looking to add places to my must visit list. I still have not done a Midwest road trip and would like to try that eventually.

I’ll start with my recent May 2025 New England trip which was a great way to kick off the summer.  Maine was beautiful but it rained frequently so I did not see as much as I would have liked. I had a great theater trip however where we saw:

Come From Away at the Ogunquit Playhouse.  I was initially going to pass on this because frankly, I do not like being reminded of 9/11 but it seemed sacrilegious to not go to the Ogunquit Playhouse while visiting coastal Maine.  I just love those green little horse heads that decorate the outside gate of this legendary theater.  Everyone that works there is just so friendly. They have a very welcoming lobby with lots of photos from past productions to admire.  I am also fascinated by their valet parking with no valet.  This would never fly in NYC but here everyone just parks inches apart and it works. You cannot leave until the person ahead of you pulls away. It was actually fun to watch and take part in the civility.  

This was a well directed production of Come From Away with John El-Jor, Kent M. Lewis, Mary Kate Morrissey, Liz Pearce and Ben Roseberry as standouts. I hope I can get back to the Ogunquit Playhouse for the upcoming Guys and Dolls  which has an impressive cast. 

The Light in the Piazza at the Huntington theater in Boston was the highlight of my trip because it is one of my most favorite musicals and this was a resplendent production. I already left my comments in the recent Piazza thread so I’ll keep it short here and just say this is a must see if you can make it. The cast is superb. It was my first time to this theater and I was very impressed with the professionalism of the venue and the production so I will definitely be returning; probably for Fun Home 11/14-12/14/25.  

Hello Dolly! is another favorite and although I have seen it four times (3x recent Broadway revival and at Goodspeed with Klea Blackhurst) I couldn’t resist another. Hello Dolly! at Lyric Stage in Boston served as another joyful interlude on this trip. The small thrust-like set up at this 244-seat theater provides for an intimate experience. The theater is located on the second floor of a bank and was very comfortable.  Aimee Doherty as Dolly was terrific and the production was well directed given the limited space. All the actors do a terrific job utilizing the space including the multiple entrances and exits to really keep the show moving.  I think it runs through 6/22/25 and I recommend it especially if you like this show.  I left feeling like I got a big dose of Jerry Herman medicine.  

We stopped for a few terrific slices at Joe’s Pizza on Harvard Square before taking in Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) at the American Rep Theater, Cambridge, MA. I give this two hander a 90 out of 100 and recommend it especially if you like new rom-com musicals. Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts were excellent and I can see this transferring to a small Broadway house.

We stopped at the Terris Theater (Goodspeed) in Chester, CT. to take in Maltby & Shire’s new revue About Time.  This was a revue chocked with story songs about growing older.  I hope this extends so that I can hear these lyric-rich songs again.  I love this venue as it is in a beautiful little town that you’d picture on a postcard. It is especially gorgeous to go here for leaf peeping in the fall.

Next up: Berkshires 

 

 

 

[inception]

Posted: 6/2/25 at 6:13pm

I spent a lot of time looking at trip this Summer to Wooster, Ohio where at the College of Wooster every summer is the Ohio Light Opera Festival that performs lesser known historical shows.  This year besides Carousel & Brigadoon they are doing George & Ira Gershwin's Tip Toes, Noel Coward's Bittersweet, Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, and German operetta The Cousin from Batavia.

From the West Coast I would have to fly to Cleveland and then drive about an hour.  There are no direct flights from Vancouver to Cleveland,  so ultimately that made me give up on the plan.  Maybe another year.

Instead, I'm going for a long weekend in August to San Francisco where the Merola Opera Program - a summer intensive training program for young opera singers (I think somewhat in association with the SFO) - is doing performances of Rossini's Le Comte Omry.  The same weekend, Oakland's West Edge Opera has a rare performance of baroque composer Charpentier's David & Jonathan. (There is a blu-ray of a 2022 production of this Opera from the Royal Opera Versailles with costumes by  Christian Lacroix. I don't expect this to be as opulent, but that's just fine.)  I also got a ticket to see My Fair Lady at the San Francisco Playhouse one night.

Fortunately, I booked airfare & a hotel in April, as last week it was announced that the same weekend Dead & Company will be doing 3 huge shows at the Golden Gate Park polo fields.  Prices for hotels skyrocketed.

It will be interesting to see what August weather in San Francisco is like.  I guess I'll pack a couple sweaters?

Last August I flew to Albuquerque and drove up to Santa Fe for a first ever visit to the Santa Fe Opera.  Wow such beautiful scenery. I love the desert!  It was a short trip, but I still had time to do a morning hike at Bandolier National Monument, & visit Los Alamos where there is an interesting free museum about all the research done at the army base there.  We all know about the WWII stuff, and it is well covered with life sized models of "Fat Man" & "Little Boy."  But, on a personal level I was touched by the exhibit about the research done there on different viruses, including HIV.

That whole area is so scenic, that I can understand why so many people want to retire there if they can afford it 

 

Updated On: 6/2/25 at 06:13 PM

[tacotheatrelover]

Posted: 6/3/25 at 12:13am

I live in Alabama, which means all the cool theatre comes everywhere, except here.

This year alone I've taken 3 road trips with my momma and her boyfriend to Atlanta to see 5 shows all together. I've had a long share of theatre road trips ranging from 4 hours to see a tour I then seeing said tour a few months later just an hour away from me, to driving 16 hours to NYC to traumatize my conservative Christian stepdad with cabaret.

I think road tripping might be one of the most fun ways to see a show, the anticipation on the road, stopping to pee in the most shady places, and screaming with my mom because we lost money on scratch offs for the 40th time, it's honestly just a nice time.

On these trips also gives us time to just sit and talk about stuff, me and momma talk about school and work and whatever hijinks happen there. We're open and honest with each other, making sure we're heard and understood by each other, it's time for me and her to bond and the road trips make me excited each time just to talk to mom.

I'll be off to college after next school year, and to be quite frank, like any other college student, I won't be able to help my parents pay for these things anymore. I pay for my ticket and gas, my stepdad paying for hotels since he travels for work and just. works on these trips. I hold these trips close and as an integral part to my theatre experience, adding to my love of the arts and live theatre. I hope to take a few more before I'm off to make some art for myself and all who decide to give me their money.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/3/25 at 12:47am

Fun hearing about other people's experiences!  I'm in NYC and don't own a car so I'm mostly limited to public transit, but I've gone to Boston a couple times (agree about the Light in the Piazza production!), DC a couple times (Signature Theatre in Arlington makes me wish I could take the trip more than once a year), and last year to the Berkshires for their production of Pipe Dream (because who knows when else I'd have a chance to see that).  Boston seems to get a lot of hot off the presses shows from New York in their regional theaters, so I'm debating making the trip to see Hills of California and We Had a World when they premiere there.

I'd love to do a proper road trip with a car sometime but alas the cost of renting one would be too much for me alone and I don't have any friends who would want to travel that far for a show.  I'd love to make it up to Olgonquit or Barrington sometime

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/3/25 at 8:33am

Not as elaborate, but we are doing 4 shows in 3 days in July here in Ontario.

Day 1: a regional production of Evita (a show I have always wanted to see)

Day 2: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Macbeth (set amoungst a biker gang) at the Stratford Festival

Day 3: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet in Toronto

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 6/3/25 at 9:13am

I live in rural Minnesota and see a lot of local theatre, but I also drive to the Twin Cities to see shows in Minneapolis and St. Paul every other month or so, depending on my schedule.